Left-wing conspiracy my ass - Ford clearly in the wrong.
Today is not about left versus right, it’s about ensuring that elected officials realize that no matter how many votes they get, they are NOT above the law. Ford is lucky that he is getting a 14 day stay on judgement, and that he wasn’t barred for seven years from politics.
This is not something that could be written off as a simple screw-up. Ignorance of the law is not protection from it, willing ignorance doubly so. And that claim can’t even count, seeing as Rob Ford has in fact declared interest in other matters before and held off from participating in debate and voting. Nor could the claim that the amount was too small to be of interest or concern, given the big deal that Ford made about it in council. This was a clear case of conflict of interest, and the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act says that an official found to willingly involve themselves in one gets unseated.
Ford is always welcome to run again in the next mayoral election, but I’d much rather see someone with more sense and decorum in the mayor’s seat, even if they’re of an opposing political stripe from me. Bumbling blow-hards like Rob Ford are the last people who should be the chief magistrate of any town or city.